President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday that he has never seen so much “anger & unity” among Republicans over the “lack of investigation” into Hillary Clinton’s connection to a dossier developed in the 2016 presidential race to smear him.

Trump made the comments after Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairman of the House Oversight committee, said on Fox News Sunday that he has concerns over Hillary’s campaign paying a law firm over $12 million for the dossier.

Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),….

On October 24, The Washington Postdropped a bombshell that the DNC and Hillary’s campaign funded the now-debunked dossier. An unknown Republican donor first funded the dossier, produced by Fusion GPS through the GOP primary. It switched to the other side after that:

[Hillary campaign lawyer Marc] Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, retained the firm in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Prior to that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by a still unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.

The Clinton campaign and the DNC through the law firm continued to fund Fusion GPS’s research through the end of October 2016, days before Election Day.

The next day, the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that claims Hillary’s campaign and the DNC violated campaign finance law over payments for the Trump Dossier. LawNewz reported:

According to a recent reports in the media, Marc Elias, who also served as the Clinton campaign lawyer, paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS to produce the dossier which exposed alleged connection between Donald Trump and Russia government. It also contained salacious allegations about Trump’s personal escapades. According to reports, the Hillary for America campaign paid for the research but routed the payments through Elias’ law firm Perkins Coie and described the purpose of the money as “legal services” on their FEC disclosures. The DNC and the Clinton campaign reported dozens of payments totaling more that $12 million dollars to Perkins Coie over the course of the campaign.

“By filing misleading reports, the DNC and Clinton campaign undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures,” said Adav Noti, with the Campaign Legal Center in a statement obtained by LawNewz. Noti previously served as the FEC’s Associate General Counsel for Policy. “Voters need campaign disclosure laws to be enforced so they can hold candidates accountable for how they raise and spend money. The FEC must investigate this apparent violation and take appropriate action.”

Gowdy is determined to get to the bottom of the dossier funding because if Hillary and the DNC funded it, then “it should not have been used for government investigations unless there was some serious corroboration of the details.” Gowdy continued, according to The Washington Examiner:

“If they relied on that dossier and they didn’t corroborate it or vet it, then we have a serious issue and that’s the next thing that House intel is trying to find out, whether or not the U.S. government relied on it,” he said.

—

“That’s the most important thing to me is how unserious the Democrats in the house have been about uncovering all of the facts,” he said. “I am interested in who paid for the dossier because that helps you understand motive and intent and whether or not you can rely on the document. I am much more interested in whether or not the Department of Justice and the FBI relied upon that dossier and initiating a counterintelligence investigation or in court findings.”

Gowdy mentioned that the Democrats in the House “have been ‘unserious’ about uncovering the details of the dossier, how it was developed, and who paid for it.”

Actually, if I get the timeline right, the Washington Free Beacon hired Fusion GPS to do research on multiple Republican candidates (including Trump) in 2015, then in April 2016 the DNC and Clinton campaign hired them and the Republican money dropped out until June 2016 when Steele was hired and the Democratic money spigot got turned on full.

When October 2016 rolled around, this was supposed to be the traditional Democratic October Surprise. More like a fizzle, thankfully.

Actually, Trump was NOPT pushing the GOP Congress to investigate Hillary ties to the dossier. The dossier is a nothing-burger. Except for the fact that it shows greater collusion between the Russian state than anything done by the Trump campaign, it is still a nothing burger. Commissioning the dossier was not illegal. As the contents of the dossier were not officially released by the Clinton campaign, there is nothing there either. That it was used as justification for the issuance of a FISA warrant to monitor Trump and others in campaign, would support the firing of Jim Comey and might point out problems with the whole FISA process, but is still not a catastrophic development. Yet, the GOP is all a lather and vowing to spend their resources actively investigating the dossier, when Trump wants them focused on passing his agenda, a budget and tax reform [aka tax cuts].

Personally, I think the was making fun of the GOP members of Congress, not praising them. No unity exists among the GOP with regard to healthcare, budgets, immigration, tax reform or any other important part of Trump’s agenda. But, they can come together to get worked up over a Clinton connection to the Trump dossier. Says a lot about their priorities.

I agree with you on the dossier itself being a nothing burger, but using it to instigate a FISA warrant i think is a big deal. they presented fabricated evidence to a judge under oath, they lied to the court. So if a person can be charged for lying to the FBI and spend a couple of years in jail for it. why is it not a crime to lie on official court documents and commit perjury when saying that you believe the document to be true.

In order to be convicted of presenting false evidence, misrepresenting evidence and, especially, lying under oath, you have to prove that the person presenting the evidence knows that the evidence being presented is false. Now, in the case of the FISA warrant, who is going to be charged? Some low level FBI agent? James Comey? Hillary Clinton?

The only thing that the Steele dossier does is to point out the hypocrisy of the Left. It diminishes the validity of their charges, if that were actually possible. The really big things out there are the activities of the Clinton Foundation, especially in regard to U1; The extent of the electronic surveillance on the Trump campaign BEFORE the FISA warrant was issued; the weaponization of various governmental agencies, including the intelligence services; and the unmasking of US citizens and the illegal leaks which occurred. Who paid for the Steele dossier is largely irrelevant.

Just about every elected and appointed official receives outside compensation. Hillary and Bill are no different.

People have to step back and look at the big picture. Which is more important; stimulating the economy, controlling immigration, allowing more people to keep what they earn or prosecuting Hillary Clinton? Priorities are important.

Public corruption will continue to be whittled down as more and more Establishment politicians leave or are removed. As they go, things will change. The economy will continue to grow. Our society will stabilize. People like the Clintons will either be indicted or pass away, possibly like so many of their companions have. One needs patience. It might be gratifying, in the short term to seem the Clintons indicted. But, there are more important things to do, first.

Priorities, priorities, priorities. Personally, I would much rather see our economy increase by keeping production in this country, by revamping the tax code, by removing illegal aliens, by changing our trade deals to benefit us and by eliminating the horrible ACA. Those are my priorities, and the priorities of most of the people who voted for Trump. The sins of the politicians can be visited when these other things are accomplished.

An open investigation into the Clinton Foundation still exists. Servergate can be reopened on a moment’s notice. public corruption investigations into the IRA, the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA and a myriad other agencies and politicians can be opened at any time. Patience.

Manafort may have no impact on Trump yet, but Mueller is going to keep indicting middle management until he gets someone to lie for him.
Better to go on offense and investigate his role in Uranium One.

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